Addressing Climate Change through Sustainable Development and The Promotion of Human Right
Keywords:
Technologies, Financial Resources, International Human Rights, United Nation, Climate ChangeAbstract
Climate change poses a risk to the human rights of millions of people--such as their rights to life, health, food and water. The risks are highest in developing countries, where extreme weather events, crop failures and other emergencies related to climate change are projected to occur with greater frequency. Most developing countries also lack the necessary technological and financial resources to adapt to climate change. Indeed they are already facing increased difficulties in realizing the economic, social and cultural rights of their people due to the financial, economic and food crises and growing populations. This paper sets out the relevance of international human rights obligations in light of the multiple constraints climate change poses to the sustainable development of developing countries. These legally binding obligations have been agreed upon by states since the creation of the United Nations and are incorporated in widely ratified human rights treaties. Legal human rights obligations specifically require states to act to protect peoples and individuals from violations of their human rights and for states to cooperate to this end. Climate change will impact a wide range of these human rights and could potentially lead to their serious and widespread violation
References
- Derived from NASA GISS: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt
- 7 http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends
- http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007 (Synthesis Report), adopted at IPCC Plenary XXVII, Valencia, Spain, 12-17 November 2007, at IPCC 4AR Synthesis Report [hereinafter IPCC 4AR Synthesis Report], p. 44.
- UNFCCC Article 4.1(a)
- This section draws heavily on an article (forthcoming) by Wewerinke, M. and Doebbler, C., “The Added Value of the Human Rights Approach to Climate Change” (2010).
- Small Island Conference, Malé, Maldives, 13-14 November 2007, Malé Declaration on the Human Dimension of Global Climate Change, at 2 (14 November 2007).
- UN HRC Res. 7/23 (28 March 2008), reprinted in UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Human Rights Council on Its Seventh Session, 65-66, UN Doc. A/HRC/7/78 (14 July 2008).
- See, for example, address by Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol held in Bali, Indonesia from 3-14 December 2007.
- United Nations Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the relationship between climate change and human rights (Report of OHCHR), UN Doc. A/HRC/10/61 (15 January 2009), para. 96.
- UN HRC Res. 10/4 (25 March 2009), reprinted in UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Human Rights Council on Its Tenth Session, 14, UN Doc. A/HRC/10/L.11 (12 May 2009) [hereinafter UN HRC Res. 10/4].
- John H. Knox, “Linking Human Rights and Climate Change at the United Nations,” 33(1) Harvard Environmental Law Review 477, 496 (2009).
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2007/2008 (Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world) (2007) [hereinafter HDR 2007], p. 91.
- See Article 17 of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, adopted at the 14th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, Res. No. 49/19-P (1990) and Article 15 of the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, adopted in OIC Doc. OIC/9-IGGE/HRI/2004/Rep. Final (2004), not yet entered into force.
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